TAP(4) FreeBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual TAP(4)
NAME
tap, vmnet - Ethernet tunnel software network interface
SYNOPSIS
device tuntap
DESCRIPTION
The tap interface is a software loopback mechanism that can be loosely
described as the network interface analog of the pty(4), that is, tap
does for network interfaces what the pty(4) driver does for terminals.
The tap driver, like the pty(4) driver, provides two interfaces: an
interface like the usual facility it is simulating (an Ethernet network
interface in the case of tap, or a terminal for pty(4)), and a character-
special device "control" interface. A client program transfers Ethernet
frames to or from the tap "control" interface. The tun(4) interface
provides similar functionality at the network layer: a client will
transfer IP (by default) packets to or from a tun(4) "control" interface.
The network interfaces are named "tap0", "tap1", etc., one for each
control device that has been opened. These Ethernet network interfaces
persist until if_tuntap.ko module is unloaded, or until removed with
"ifconfig destroy" (see below).
tap devices are created using interface cloning. This is done using the
"ifconfig tapN create" command. This is the preferred method of creating
tap devices. The same method allows removal of interfaces. For this,
use the "ifconfig tapN destroy" command.
If the sysctl(8) variable net.link.tap.devfs_cloning is non-zero, the tap
interface permits opens on the special control device /dev/tap. When
this device is opened, tap will return a handle for the lowest unused tap
device (use devname(3) to determine which).
Disabling the legacy devfs cloning functionality may break existing
applications which use tap, such as VMware and ssh(1). It therefore
defaults to being enabled until further notice.
Control devices (once successfully opened) persist until if_tuntap.ko is
unloaded or the interface is destroyed.
Each interface supports the usual Ethernet network interface ioctl(2)s
and thus can be used with ifconfig(8) like any other Ethernet interface.
When the system chooses to transmit an Ethernet frame on the network
interface, the frame can be read from the control device (it appears as
"input" there); writing an Ethernet frame to the control device generates
an input frame on the network interface, as if the (non-existent)
hardware had just received it.
The Ethernet tunnel device, normally /dev/tapN, is exclusive-open (it
cannot be opened if it is already open) and is restricted to the super-
user, unless the sysctl(8) variable net.link.tap.user_open is non-zero.
If the sysctl(8) variable net.link.tap.up_on_open is non-zero, the tunnel
device will be marked "up" when the control device is opened. A read()
call will return an error (EHOSTDOWN) if the interface is not "ready".
Once the interface is ready, read() will return an Ethernet frame if one
is available; if not, it will either block until one is or return
EWOULDBLOCK, depending on whether non-blocking I/O has been enabled. If
the frame is longer than is allowed for in the buffer passed to read(),
the extra data will be silently dropped.
A write(2) call passes an Ethernet frame in to be "received" on the
pseudo-interface. Each write() call supplies exactly one frame; the
frame length is taken from the amount of data provided to write().
Writes will not block; if the frame cannot be accepted for a transient
reason (e.g., no buffer space available), it is silently dropped; if the
reason is not transient (e.g., frame too large), an error is returned.
The following ioctl(2) calls are supported (defined in <net/if_tap.h>):
TAPSIFINFO Set network interface information (line speed and
MTU). The type must be the same as returned by
TAPGIFINFO or set to IFT_ETHER else the ioctl(2)
call will fail. The argument should be a pointer to
a struct tapinfo.
TAPGIFINFO Retrieve network interface information (line speed,
MTU and type). The argument should be a pointer to
a struct tapinfo.
TAPSDEBUG The argument should be a pointer to an int; this
sets the internal debugging variable to that value.
What, if anything, this variable controls is not
documented here; see the source code.
TAPGDEBUG The argument should be a pointer to an int; this
stores the internal debugging variable's value into
it.
TAPGIFNAME Retrieve network interface name. The argument
should be a pointer to a struct ifreq. The
interface name will be returned in the ifr_name
field.
FIONBIO Turn non-blocking I/O for reads off or on, according
as the argument int's value is or is not zero
(Writes are always nonblocking).
FIOASYNC Turn asynchronous I/O for reads (i.e., generation of
SIGIO when data is available to be read) off or on,
according as the argument int's value is or is not
zero.
FIONREAD If any frames are queued to be read, store the size
of the first one into the argument int; otherwise,
store zero.
TIOCSPGRP Set the process group to receive SIGIO signals, when
asynchronous I/O is enabled, to the argument int
value.
TIOCGPGRP Retrieve the process group value for SIGIO signals
into the argument int value.
SIOCGIFADDR Retrieve the Media Access Control (MAC) address of
the "remote" side. This command is used by the
VMware port and expected to be executed on
descriptor, associated with control device (usually
/dev/vmnetN or /dev/tapN). The buffer, which is
passed as the argument, is expected to have enough
space to store the MAC address. At the open time
both "local" and "remote" MAC addresses are the
same, so this command could be used to retrieve the
"local" MAC address.
SIOCSIFADDR Set the Media Access Control (MAC) address of the
"remote" side. This command is used by VMware port
and expected to be executed on a descriptor,
associated with control device (usually
/dev/vmnetN).
The control device also supports select(2) for read; selecting for write
is pointless, and always succeeds, since writes are always non-blocking.
On the last close of the data device, the interface is brought down (as
if with "ifconfig tapN down") and has all of its configured addresses
deleted unless the device is a VMnet device, or has IFF_LINK0 flag set.
All queued frames are thrown away. If the interface is up when the data
device is not open, output frames are thrown away rather than letting
them pile up.
The tap device can also be used with the VMware port as a replacement for
the old VMnet device driver. VMnet devices do not ifconfig(8) themselves
down when the control device is closed. Everything else is the same.
In addition to the above mentioned ioctl(2) calls, there is an additional
one for the VMware port.
VMIO_SIOCSIFFLAGS VMware SIOCSIFFLAGS.
SEE ALSO
inet(4), intro(4), tun(4)
FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6 January 13, 2020 FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p6
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